The entire nation has been fixated on the Trump-Russia probe and the Senate Republicans’ healthcare plan. Everyone wants to know what kind of healthcare coverage they can expect under whatever new healthcare plan will replace Obamacare. Many are also wondering what will happen to their existing healthcare plans if the new GOP plan is passed and even if it isn’t passed. With more and more insurance providers cancelling policies and pulling out of the Obamacare exchanges, they wonder how much longer their current policies will still be good and how much the rates will increase next year.

Parents of kids with asthma and/or allergies are living with the uncertainty of not knowing what kind of healthcare they’ll have the next time they have to take their kids to the doctor or hospital in the case of a bad asthma attack. Will they still have coverage in the near future? At the moment, no one can say for certain.

“Asthma is the most common chronic condition among children under the age of 18, affecting 6.3 million.

24 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 have some limited activity due to asthma.

Asthma is the leading cause of missed school days among children ages 5 to 17.

Asthma in America survey indicated that misunderstandings about asthma symptoms and treatment were widespread among patients and that care often fell short of National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines.”

“Children with recurrent cough, wheezing, chest tightness or shortness of breath may have one or more forms of asthma.

Left untreated, asthmatic children often have less stamina than other children, or avoid physical activities to prevent coughing or wheezing. Sometimes they will complain that their chest hurts or that they can not catch their breath. Colds may go straight to their chest. Or, they may cough when sick, particularly at night.

Asthma has multiple causes, and it is not uncommon for two or more different causes to be present in one child. Asthma is more than wheezing. Coughing, recurrent bronchitis and shortness of breath, especially when exercising, are also ways that asthma appears.”

However, a new study may give prospective parents something to think about to help reduce the chances of their kids having asthma. Researchers at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, began studying women who were pregnant in the 1990s and then followed up with their children. They found what direct link to the pregnant mothers’ intake of sugar to their kids developing allergies and allergic allergies

“The study’s findings showed that the 20% of mothers with the highest sugar intake had a 38% increased risk of their children developing allergies than the 20% of those with the lowest sugar intake. There was also a 101% increased risk of allergic asthma in the children of women who consumed large amounts of sugar.”

“The team of researchers said that the association between sugar and allergies and allergic asthma is allergic inflammation in the developing lungs due to a high intake of fructose by the mother.”

One of the lead researchers recommends that pregnant women try to decrease the amount of sugar they take in during their pregnancies, especially women in western countries like the United States, where sugar is a mainstay in many foods, snacks and beverages. Ladies – try to avoid those ice cream cravings, for the sake of your child

That may seem like an odd question, but the answers one gets may help explain some general misinformation.

The number one answer many people give is heart disease. While heart disease is the number 1 cause of deaths for people over the age of 65, it’s not the number 1 health condition that older people endure.

The second answer one general hears is cancer, but again, that would be wrong. It’s not cancer.

The number 1 health condition facing older individuals is arthritis. According the Center for Disease Control, 49.7% of adults over the age of 65 will suffer from some form of arthritis, but that does come with a caveat.

Depending upon the source, the term arthritis can refer to between 100 to 200 forms of diseases and conditions that affect joints and the tissues associated with the joints. These are further broken down into 7 main groups:

Inflammatory arthritis – Inflammation is a normal part of the body’s healing process. The inflammation tends to occur as a defense against viruses and bacteria or as a response to injuries such as burns. However, with inflammatory arthritis, inflammation occurs in people for no apparent reason. Inflammatory arthritis is characterized by damaging inflammation that does not occur as a normal reaction to injury or infection. This type of inflammation is unhelpful and instead causes damage in the affected joints, resulting in pain, stiffness and swelling.

Degenerative or mechanical arthritis – Degenerative or mechanical arthritis refers to a group of conditions primarily involving damage to the cartilage that covers the ends of the bones. The main job of the smooth, slippery cartilage is to help the joints glide and move smoothly. This type of arthritis causes the cartilage to become thinner and rougher. To compensate for the loss of cartilage and changes in joint function, the body begins to remodel the bone in an attempt to restore stability. This can cause undesirable bony growths to develop (osteophytes), or cause the joint to become misshapen. This condition is commonly called osteoarthritis.

Soft tissue musculoskeletal pain – Soft tissue musculoskeletal pain is felt in tissues other than the joints and bones. The pain often affects a part of the body following injury or overuse, such as tennis elbow, and originates from the muscles or soft tissues supporting the joints. Sometimes if the pain is more widespread and associated with other symptoms, it could be diagnosed as fibromyalgia.

Back pain – Back pain can arise from the muscles, discs, nerves, ligaments, bones or joints. Back pain may even be caused by problems with organs inside the body, and can be a result of referred pain, i.e. a problem elsewhere in the body that causes a sensation of pain in the back. Back pain may have a specific cause, such as osteoarthritis – often called spondylosis when it occurs in the spine – which may be visible on diagnostic imaging or physical examination. A “slipped” disc is another cause of back pain, as is osteoporosis (thinning of the bones). In most cases it is not possible for a doctor to identify the exact cause of back pain – this is often described as “non-specific” pain.

Connective tissue disease – Connective tissues are tissues that support, bind together or separate other body tissues and organs. They include tendons, ligaments and cartilage. Joint pain is a symptom of CTD, but the inflammation that characterizes CTD may also occur in other tissues including the skin, muscles, lungs and kidneys. This can result in a diverse range of symptoms besides painful joints and require consultation with a number of different specialists.

In most of these cases, the joint infection can be cleared with antibiotics or other antimicrobial medication. However, the arthritis can sometimes become chronic, and/or joint damage may be irreversible if the infection has persisted for some time.

Metabolic arthritis – Uric acid is a chemical created when the body breaks down substances called purines. Purines are found in human cells and several foods. Most uric acid dissolves in blood and travels to the kidneys. From there, it passes out in urine. Some people have elevated levels of uric acid because they either naturally produce more than is needed or their body cannot clear the uric acid quickly enough. Uric acid builds up and accumulates in some people and forms needle-like crystals in the joint, resulting in sudden spikes of extreme joint pain or a gout attack.

Arthritis can affect younger people, but is more common as people age. It affects women and men and can make simple daily tasks difficult and even impossible. Many women like to sew, quilt, darn, knit and other hand-oriented crafts, but these activities can be greatly hindered by many forms of arthritis.

If you experience joint pain anywhere in your body, see a physician. Some forms of arthritis are curable, depending upon the cause and some are better managed with medications and location specific activities. There may be ways to help to make your pain ease off and make your life easier.

Millions of Americans get some form of cancer. The cost of treating and fighting cancer reaches into the billions of dollars. One source lists the cost of cancer care in 2010 at $157 billion. Imagine how much could be saved if researchers could find a successful way to fight cancer that didn’t require traditional chemotherapy or radiation therapy? Millions of lives could be saved and total healthcare costs in the United States could be lowered enough to almost make a national healthcare system affordable – ALMOST.

Researchers working for Novartis, a large drug company may have made what some are calling the most major breakthrough in cancer treatment in decades. Dr. David Lebwohl heads up the CAR-T Franchise Global Program that developed the breakthrough technology.

The process has been named CAR-T cell immunotherapy and the idea is brilliant. Important immune T cells are removed from a patient. The scientists then genetically modified them so that they would target and attack just cancer cells. Once the T cells have been genetically modified, they are injected back into the patient where they travel through the blood stream to the cancer and attack it. Using the patient’s own T cells to fight cancer eliminates many of the harsh and debilitating side-effects of most chemotherapies and/or radiation therapies.

Many cancer patients will tell you that many of the treatments they undergo are almost worse than the cancer itself. The nausea, weakness, headaches, aches and pains that go with most treatments, often leave cancer patients unable to function. They end up spending hours, days and even weeks feeling sicker than a dog before they feel better.

The FDA Advisory Panel has endorsed the use of the new immunotherapy, which was initially developed to treat children and young adults with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, that either doesn’t respond to standard treatment of they have relapsed. This form of cancer is the most common cancer that affects children in the United States.

With standard treatment, many children become cancer free, but at some time down the road may suffer a relapse. Others don’t respond to the standard treatment or cannot tolerate it. When this form of leukemia relapses, quite often the standard treatment is not nearly as successful.

The initial study for the new treatment was conducted at 25 different locations on 88 patients in 11 different countries. The patients ran in age from 3 to 23 and all had experienced a relapse that did not respond to standard treatment or they failed to respond to standard treatment to begin with. The drug developed to help genetically modify the patient’s T cells is known as tisagenlecleucel or CTL019, or the ‘living drug’. In the studies, 83% of the patients that received CTL019 saw their leukemia go into total remission.

Dr. Stephen Hunger, a doctor at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia assisted in the study on the new immunotherapy. He commented about the need for such a treatment, saying:

“There is a major unmet medical need for treatment options.”

Other drug companies and researchers have tried to use similar forms of immunotherapy, but ran into a serious side-effect known as cytokine release syndrome. This is when the genetically modified T cells begin attacking some of the patient’s organs. In some cases, they attacked the brains, causing severe brain swelling and death.

So far in the study using CTL019, only a few patients developed the side effects, but none of those cases were fatal and all of the patients recovered. Dr. Timothy Cripe, an oncologist at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio commented about the drug, saying:

“This is the most exciting thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Dr. Malcolm Smith, associate branch chief for the pediatric oncology at the Nation Cancer Institute, also commented about the study, saying:

“This is a major advance and is ushering in a new era in treating children.”

Since the researchers use a virus to help genetically modify the T cells, no one is sure if there are any long-term effects.

Getting the endorsement of the Advisory Panel, which voted 10-0 to endorse the new drug and treatment, is one of the first steps towards approval of the drug and treatment process. The FDA does not have to always take the endorsement of the Advisory Panel, but doctors and families of patients involved in the study are lobbying for approval.

While the new living drug, if approved, could save billions of dollars in cancer treatment, it’s probably not going to be cheap for patients to get. Novartis has not said how much the drug treatment will cost, but some analysts in the industry are estimating it could cost as much as $500,000 per infusion of the genetically modified T cells. Hopefully, it won’t cost nearly this much and is made readily available to the thousands of kids suffering from this form of leukemia.

What is your employer’s sick time policy and are you honest about using it?

Some years ago, I was an assistant manager for a large retail store and was floored one day when our furniture department manager called in well. He woke up feeling really good and felt the need to go fishing instead of coming in to work, he was buying some beer, picking up his dad and was heading to a lake to go fishing. I admired him for being honest, as he could have lied and said he was sick, but he didn’t, he called in well. The next day, when he came to work, I spoke to him and he explained that he had been very stressed lately and just needed a day to relax and unwind. Our company policy gave me no choice but to write him up with a written reprimand, but I did comment about his honesty and understood his need to unwind.

In today’s world, one could refer to that as a mental health day. Back then, mental health wasn’t really considered to be a concern, at least not nearly as important as physical health, but times are changing and some employers actually allow for mental health days.

Madalyn Parker lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan as a web developer. She felt that she needed a couple of days off for mental health reasons. In 2015, she had written about her battle to overcome mental health hurdles at work, so many of her colleagues were aware of her struggles. Like my furniture manager, Parker was honest about why she was taking a couple of days off and sent an email to her team, which read:

“Hey team, I’m taking today and tomorrow off to focus on my mental health. Hopefully I’ll be back next week refreshed and back to 100%. Thanks, Madalyn.”

What do you think your employer would say if you took a couple days off and sent an email stating the same reason that Parker gave?

Her fellow workers accepted her reason for taking the time off, largely because they knew her and of her struggles. The surprise was the response she got from Ben Congleton, the CEO of the company where she works.

“Hey Madalyn, I just wanted to personally thank you for sending emails like this. Every time you do, I use it as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health – I can’t believe this is not standard practice at all organizations. You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work.”

Parker was so pleased with the CEO’s response that she asked to share it on Twitter and he agreed. Once she tweeted it out, she has received thousands of likes and it’s been re-tweeted thousands of times.

Psychotherapist Any Morin gives several reason for needing to take a mental health off. They are:

• When you’re distracted by something you need to address. If you’re behind on your bills and taking a day off to tackle your budget could help you feel as though you’re back in control, it may make sense to take a day to address it so you can reduce your anxiety.

• When you’ve been neglecting yourself. Just like electronic devices need recharging, it’s important to take time to charge your own batteries. A little alone time or an opportunity to practice some self-care can help you perform better.

• When you need to attend appointments to care for your mental health. Whether you need to see your doctor to get your medication adjusted or to schedule an appointment with your therapist, taking a day off to address your mental health needs is instrumental in helping you be your best.

Why Leaders Should Care About Employees’ Mental Health

It would be wonderful if all employers supported employees’ efforts to take care of their mental health in the same way Congleton did. But clearly, the tweet went viral because most employers wouldn’t have had the same reaction.

In today’s America, more emphasis has been placed on our mental health as much as on our physical health. Do you know if your employer recognizes the need to take a mental health day off as well as a sick day off? If not, you need to find out, because staying mentally healthy can have a direct impact on staying physically healthy.

Ladies, how many of you had chicken pox when you were a kid or even older? You may or may not be aware that having had chicken pox greatly increases your chances of developing shingles later on in life which can also increase your risk of developing heart disease.

“Shingles is a condition caused by the same virus responsible for chickenpox (herpes zoster). Over 90% of North Americans are infected with herpes zoster, which means we have been exposed to it and have evidence of the virus in our bloodstream. One out of three people will not get a rash. Perhaps as a child you only had a fever, runny nose, and body aches. But after exposure, the virus travels, hides, and lives quietly in your nerve cells called neurons. Studies suggest that the virus prefers special neurons called ganglions in our upper body that control pain in our upper trunk, chest, and face.”

“Years later, when conditions are right, the virus can “wake up,” reproduce itself, and travel to the skin by way of sensory nerve fibers resulting in an incurable, burning, painful, blister-like rash. Usually, the pain and blisters are on one side of the upper or lower back, chest, abdomen, or face. Days to months prior to the blisters, there is burning pain (like a sunburn), and the rash arrives lasting 7 to 10 days. A more serious subset of the disease, herpes zoster ophthalmicus, affects the face and eye, causing pain and visual problems, and the loss of independent living for older sufferers. The blisters and pain can be treated by pain and antiviral medications, which shorten the course of the virus and help prevent a chronic pain syndrome called postherpetic neuralgia(PHN).”

When shingles develop on the face and around the eyes, the pain can be debilitating and it can interfere with vision and hearing. If the shingles infects the eye, it can cause permanent loss of vision. If there are any open sores that get infected with shingles, it can result in the destruction in the underlying tissue and scarring on the skin. The intense pain from shingles can be persistent, last for months and even years. It can interfere with sleep and many normal daily activities and has been a direct cause of depression in some individuals. If a person with an immune deficiency or a suppressed immune system develops shingles, the rash can become more extensive, last longer and can lead to other illnesses including pneumonia.

Unfortunately, shingles occurs more in females than males, but both are susceptible. Sorry, ladies, but it seems that shingles loves to strike women during and shortly after menopause. Women are also more like to have recurrences of shingles than men.

The older a person gets, the greater chances they have of developing shingles. Some studies have claimed that 50% of the people age 80 will develop some form of shingles. Since the virus that causes shingles is part of the same herpes simplex that causes cold sores on the lips, people who are prone to cold sores are also more prone to developing shingles as they get older.

Some studies also indicate that the development of shingles can increase one’s risk of developing heart disease. Whether a direct cause of the virus or due to the stress shingles puts on the body, including mental and emotional stress, researchers are not sure, but they do believe there is an increased risk of heart disease.

There is a shingles vaccine available at most doctors’ offices and even many pharmacies. It’s highly recommended that everyone, especially women over the age of 50, get a shingles vaccine. Even if the vaccine isn’t covered by basic Medicare, it’s a couple hundred dollars well spent, especially if you are prone to cold sores.

Liberals in America have been pushing hard to pass stricter gun control laws. They use the argument that guns kill and they want to save lives. They rarely admit that it’s not guns that kill, but it’s people that kill.

But when is the last time you heard any liberal push for stricter tobacco control laws or for the total banning of all tobacco products?

Compare the statistics that show that guns kill between 33,000 and 35,000 Americans a year and just smoking kills 480,000 Americans a year. That’s not to mention the 16 million Americans living with a tobacco related disease. Those diseases include heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Compare these numbers with the 33,000 Americans that die from guns. I’m not trying to trivialize gun deaths as any death is tragic, but when compared to the effects of tobacco use, gun deaths pale in comparison.

“Total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, including

Nearly $170 billion in direct medical care for adults5

More than $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.”

Just think of the billions of dollars and millions of lives that could be saved if tobacco was banned.

Millions of Americans would quickly begin reversing some of the harmful effects of tobacco.

When someone smokes tobacco products, the tiny hair-like structures in the lungs known as cilia become somewhat paralyzed and unable to move the mucus that builds up, out of the lungs and the lining of the lungs become inflamed. The mucus begins to accumulate, leading to coughing and eventually worse. Additionally, the blood stream picks up carbon monoxide from the smoke. The carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in the blood stream, resulting in the loss of energy and muscle function causing fatigue. Prolonged use results in the accumulation of dangerous toxic chemicals in the lungs that often cause cancer. The lack of oxygen in the blood over a prolonged period leads to heart disease, stroke and diabetes as well lung diseases.

When someone stops smoking, it doesn’t take long for the inflammation in the lungs to begin to heal. The cilia again begin to function normally, moving mucus up and out of the lungs. They work to clean the lungs of dirt, mucus and even some of the toxic chemical residues. As the lungs clean out, it reduces the risk of lung cancer and more.

The overall benefit of banning tobacco products greatly outweighs the benefits of banning guns from law abiding citizens (criminals will always find a way to get a gun if they really want to). Therefore, there is a far greater reason to push stricter tobacco control laws than gun control laws. Besides saving 20 times more lives a year, it will reduce the cost of healthcare for everyone.

According to findings published in the journal Pediatrics in February, the Mediterranean diet, mostly comprised of vegetables, nuts and healthy fats, may be linked to a lower risk of a child’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. It’s thought that the diet’s omega-3 fatty acids and nutrients may combat dietary imbalances pertaining to cognitive and physical growth. At the same time, the researchers noted that such findings don’t point to a direct cause and effect between foods that are consumed and ADHD, but rather that such knowledge may be beneficial when creating dietary strategies to help improve quality of life.

Dr. Sanford Newmark, head of the Pediatric Integrative Neurodevelopmental Program and Medical Director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California–San Francisco, says that a “sensible diet is important for all children, but especially those with ADHD.”

Consider an Elimination Diet

Newmark explains that his approach almost always involves an elimination diet, which weeds out certain food choices until more desirable moods and behaviors are achieved. Common culprits that are usually eliminated, he says, involve wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, corn, artificial coloring and artificial flavoring. “I often see dramatic improvement across the board,” he says of the elimination diet. “Hyperactivity slows down and focus increases.”

Another advocate of removing various foods from a diet in an effort to improve symptoms is Robin DeCicco, a holistic nutritionist with a private practice in Ramsey, New Jersey. “No actual foods are known to cause ADHD symptoms, but certain foods may trigger behavioral problems, aggravation or concentration difficulties in certain kids,” she says. “This can differ from child to child – some kids may be much more sensitive to sugar, food dyes, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup than others. The only way to really figure this out for sure for each child is to eliminate certain food groups for a period of time and keep a journal of the child’s behavior to document change.”

DeCicco, who coaches clients on topics ranging from ADHD and pediatric nutrition to diabetes management and irritable bowel syndrome through her the Power of Food Education program, adds that if change is significant, it’s necessary to always keep the child away from that specific food. “It’s not like foods that are actually good for you are correlated to worsening ADHD symptoms – meaning that I’d never recommend eliminating veggies, fruit, omega-3 fats, fish, lean meat protein, certain nuts and seeds and olive or coconut oils,” she says. She feels those are among the most nutritious foods to ingest. “These foods are associated with an increase in cognitive function, memory, focus and have anti-inflammatory effects on the body, which, in turn, help to stabilize blood sugar levels.”

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, low-glycemic foods are ones that fall on the low range of a scale that rates foods from 1 to 100. The whites of potatoes, for example, come in at a whopping 98, while Greek yogurt is a healthier 11.

“In my opinion, sugar in most processed forms can surely lead to hyperactivity and can aggravate ADHD tendencies in kids who may already be prone to ADHD,” DeCicco says. Desserts, juice, sodas and candy are foods that she explains contribute to the spike in blood sugar and subsequent inability to manage ADHD symptoms. “When blood sugar is balanced – which comes from eating a diet rich in whole foods like lean protein, fiber and healthy fats – the system is usually calmer,” she says, adding that agitation, irritability and “trouble focusing on one task at a time” is common when not eating these healthier foods.

Think Twice About Giving Your Child Coffee

When it comes to improving focus, coffee is something else that parents should think twice about giving their ADHD child. Although some parents have turned to the stimulant as a more natural option in favor of avoiding any possible side effects of Ritalin, a prescribed stimulant often recommended for ADHD, experts say that it’s not an ideal solution.

In an ABC News story on this topic, Dr. David Rosenberg, chief of psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit explains that “caffeine is not the answer for real, bona fide ADHD. “I don’t want parents to be deluded into a false sense of security that if I just go to the local Starbucks, I’m going to cure my son or daughter’s ADHD.”

“Caffeine can stimulate immature neurological systems beyond children’s ability to tolerate it, which can have serious effects,” notes the American Psychological Association’s Division 43 (Family) President Terence Patterson, of the University of San Francisco in the APA’s magazine, Monitor on Psychology. “Excessive caffeine use damages the attention capacity that children need to cooperate in play, family and school environments.”

Observe and Fight Urge to Banish Foods From Child’s Diet Entirely

In addition to the thought that caffeine is helpful for a child with ADHD, another myth, according to Newmark, is that a child can never again ingest a certain food. “Some patients are convinced that every kid with ADHD can’t have gluten or can’t have dairy,” he says. “This isn’t true. For some this may be the case, but it’s not a blanket statement.”

The key, he explains, is observation of behaviors, eliminating certain foods and then adding certain ones back based on noted improvements. “But even if a kid is sensitive to a food, that doesn’t mean they can’t ever have it.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate have had 7-years to create their replacement for Obamacare. From the moment, the Affordable Care Act was passed and forced upon the American people, Republicans have been saying they wanted to repeal and replace it with a better plan, but evidently, no one worked on that better plan until after last November’s election. House Republicans have voted at least half a dozen times to repeal Obamacare, over the past 6 years, but their actions were in vain as there was no way Barack Obama would ever sign a bill that repealed his flagship legislation and Republicans never had enough votes to override Obama’s appeal. Their gesture to repeal was nothing more than a gesture for their constituents and nothing more.

Yet through it all, they never worked on a replacement program. The actions of congressional Republicans remind me of millions of school kids who wait until the night before a paper is due to start writing it. The end result of those last-minute papers are about the same as the apparent results of the Republican plans (House and Senate) that have been seen so far.

Senate Democrats have offered to work with Senate Republicans to come up with a workable and acceptable replacement, but Republican leaders say all Democrats want to do is to delete what they don’t like and insert their plans, which are different than what Republicans want.

Because the current Senate version was so hastily and poorly constructed, there is not enough support, even among Republicans, to pass the measure, so a vote has been postponed until after the July 4th holiday recess. It just seems that Republicans aren’t able to concentrate and think properly.

Perhaps what they need to do is take a short nap every day to help them come up with a workable and acceptable healthcare plan?

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder, taking a 15-to-20-minute nap increases learning, memory, awareness and also helps a person think more clearly. All of these are desperately needed by congressional Republicans.

Studies have shown that short naps can improve awareness and productivity. You don’t need much; just 15 to 20 minutes can make a world of difference.

“According to a study from the University of Colorado Boulder discovered that children who didn’t take their afternoon nap didn’t display much joy and interest, had a higher level of anxiety, and lower problem solving skills compared to other children who napped regularly. The same goes for adults as well. Researchers with Berkeley found that adults who regularly take advantage of an afternoon nap have a better learning ability and improved memory function. Why is napping so essential? Because it gives your brain a reboot, where the short-term memory is cleared out and our brain becomes refreshed with new defragged space.”

“How long should you nap?”

“According to experts, 10 to 20 minutes is quite enough to refresh your mind and increase your energy and alertness. The sleep isn’t as deep as longer naps and you’re able to get right back at your day immediately after waking up. If you nap for 30 minutes you may deal with a 30-minute grogginess period because you wake up just as your body started entering a deeper stage of sleep. The same can be said if you sleep for an hour, but on the other hand, these 60-minute naps provide an excellent memory boost. The longest naps— lasting about 90 minutes—are recommended for those people who just don’t get enough sleep at night. Since it’s a complete sleep cycle, it can improve emotional memory and creativity.”

If only American employers would realize the significance of an afternoon power nap.

Could the solution be so simple that all Senate Republicans need is to take a 15-20-minute nap at least once a day to help them develop their replacement for Obamacare?

Once Senate Republicans unveiled their Obamacare replacement plan, they have come under a great deal of criticism. It didn’t help when the Congressional Budget Office came out with their appraisal of the Senate GOP plan, especially when they stated that 22 million Americans would lose their health coverage with the next 10 years. Notice that the liberal mainstream media is not adding the qualifier of the ‘next 10 years- when they report on the CBO analysis. All we hear from the media is that 22 million will lose their health care.

Of the 22 million reported by the CBO, about 15 million are those currently receiving coverage under Medicaid. Medicaid was created to help low-income people, children, disabled, elderly in nursing homes and pregnant women.

However, what the CBO report is NOT saying is that Obamacare greatly expanded Medicaid coverage so that millions more would qualify. Additionally, what they are NOT saying is that when Obama expanded Medicaid, the federal government would pay the states 50% of the cost, but over the past several years, many states have complained that they have not been receiving their full 50% federal reimbursement. Most states cannot afford to pick up the additional cost of the expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.

But how trustworthy is the CBO report?

According to one source, who is generally very liberal and Obama supportive:

“When the law originally passed in 2010, it estimated 21 million would gain coverage through them in 2016. Three years later, just before the exchanges opened, the agency upped the figure to 22 million.”

“That didn’t happen. About 10.4 million were actually enrolled last year, according to the Department of Health & Human Services data.”

Not only did the CBO report drastically over-estimate Obamacare coverage, but since Obamacare went into effect, millions more Americans have lost their healthcare coverage.

Obamacare created a series of taxpayer-funded state CO-OPs, designed to help with lower cost healthcare coverage. The Democratic-controlled Congress voted to fund $6 billion of taxpayer money to fund the CO-OPs. By April of 2016 12 of the 23 CO-OPs in 14 states had failed, leaving 740,000 people without coverage.

Then consider how many major healthcare insurance providers have dropped handling Obamacare exchange policies because they were losing millions of dollars on those policies. In September 2016, UnitedHealth Group cut back on their policies, costing nearly 150,000 people their coverage. In 2015, 367,000 people in Texas lost their healthcare coverage as direct result of Obamacare. Another report in 2015 reported that 10 million people were losing their employer provided healthcare, also due to Obamacare regulations.

So just how accurate and reliable is the current CBO report on the latest Senate GOPcare? If it’s anywhere near as accurate as their reports on Obamacare, you can take their report and chuck it in the trash because that’s all it is, liberal propaganda trash and nothing more.

How many of you ladies have noticed that your hair started thinning by the time your reached 40 or 50 years of age? Be honest. Don’t hide the truth as most do. Did you know that some experts in the field claim that up to 50% of women suffer some form or degree of hair loss by the time they turn 50?

Hair loss in women is rarely spoken of in public or with others. It’s just too embarrassing for most women to admit that their hair is thinning as they get older. Hair loss is a male thing, isn’t it? NO! It’s not!

One of the problems many experts and researchers have in dealing with the issue of age related hair loss in women is that so many of them won’t talk about it. It’s one of those silent and private things one just doesn’t discuss or share.

Fortunately, a handful of ladies did talk about it and shared some of the tips they have used to deal with their thinning hair.

One New Jersey woman said she noticed her hair thinning all at once back in 2011. She tried doing everything that anyone told her, including changing shampoos, trimming her hair more often, not brushing her hair as frequently, extra conditioner and even the shampoos that are supposed to add volume to your hair, but nothing worked. She turned to home remedies including avocado and oatmeal soaks, but again nothing. Finally, she confided in her doctor who diagnosed her as having Hashimoto’s disease. It’s a condition where the body’s immune system attacks the thyroid gland which usually causes chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, also known as hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid gland. An underactive or low thyroid can result in thinning hair and most generally affects middle-aged women, but can affect men and younger and older women as well. Once diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, her doctor put her on thyroid medication and in about a year, most of her hair grew back.

One 51-year-old woman from Australia said she started noticing her hair thinning shortly after she turned 40. She went to the doctor who tested her for thyroid function and vitamin deficiencies, but everything came back normal. She was then sent to a dermatologist who recommend she take zinc supplements and use a minoxidil-based topical treatment. However, the zinc was hard on her system and blood work showed her zinc levels were normal, so she stopped taking it. After using a 2% minoxidil solution, she found the odor unbearable and felt like it stayed with her all day at work. It also left her hair looking greasy and dirty, so she stopped that. Next, she turned to vitamin B12 and biotin, but they didn’t restore any of the thinning hair. So far, nothing has helped her.

One Colombian woman said she has had alopecia since she was 19. She visited several dermatologists, a general practitioner, a Chinese herbal doctor and a hair loss specialist. She tried herbal remedies, 7 different shampoos, specialized diets cold laser treatment, vitamins, biotin, hair oil, teas, prescription meds and even changed her birth control, but like the woman from Australia, nothing worked. She got the best results from a special brand of shampoo and condition, but said they were so expensive, she couldn’t afford to keep using them.

A Texas woman said she always had thin hair, but when she was pregnant, she lost about 25% of her hair and then after giving birth she experienced the postpartum shed. Doctors just dismissed her concern over her thinner hair after running blood work and finding everything normal. She then ended up at an endocrinologist who prescribed spironolactone. After using it, she lost even more hair. She turned to Rogaine, using it twice a day for 6-months, but saw no positive results, but her hair follicles seemed to continue to get smaller, leaving her with what she described as hair that looked like cotton candy. She turned to wearing toppers and wigs. She said her faux hair made her look and feel normal, but when she took them off at night, she came back down to earth, looking older, more tired and even heavier.

A Virginia woman related that she felt that stress was a contributing factor to her hair loss. She tried a number of volumizing shampoos and they made her hair appear thicker, it never really helped stop or reverse her hair loss. She has been using Rogaine faithfully for two years and said that it seemed to stop any further hair loss, but has not helped regrow any of her lost hair. She believes that if she stops using the Rogaine, she’ll lose more hair.

Lastly, another Virginia woman, this one is 66 years young, said that early on Rogaine made her dizzy and gave her heart palpitations. It’s since been improved, but now her skin reacts to it. She is seeing a specialist who is using a new therapy called Acell + PRP Injection Therapy. The doctor injects her own blood into her scalp to help stimulate hair growth. He warned that at her age, it may not work, but so far, it seems that it has helped stop any further hair loss. She also recommends washing hair in warm water, rinsing in cold, only coloring the roots and no more and she uses Biotage hydrating shampoo and conditioner. The shampoo and conditioner do help make her hair look thicker, which helps to cover some of the hair loss.

Sometimes it can be something as simple as low thyroid and many other times, nothing may work. However, don’t hide be silent about your hair loss. Do talk to a doctor as it may be something treatable, but don’t get too disappointed if it isn’t easily treated. There are many products that claim to regrow hair, but it seems from these ladies that few if any really work. Perhaps a wig, topper and some kind of hair piece may be the only solution for many of you.